Ohio State Basketball: Buckeyes must improve defense against Maryland
By David Wysong
The Ohio State basketball team is coming off a tough loss to Iowa, and now they must try to bounce back against another top team in the conference on Sunday.
On Thursday, the Ohio State basketball team lost its eighth Big Ten game of the season and suffered its ninth loss overall as the Buckeyes fell to the 20th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes 85-76. Now, they must try to bounce back but it will be against one of the top teams not only in the Big Ten, but in the country as they face No. 7 Maryland on Sunday.
If the Buckeyes want to get not only a bounce-back win, but a statement win, then they need to play much better defense on Sunday than they did on Thursday. Against Iowa, the Buckeyes allowed the Hawkeyes to shoot 55.8 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range. They did, however, out-rebound the Hawkeyes 38-29, but they committed 22 fouls and allowed them to shoot 25 free throws compared to their 18 free throw attempts.
The game wasn’t really as close as the final score indicated either as Iowa led by as much as 19. The Buckeyes also didn’t do a good job handling Iowa’s star center Luke Garza as he scored 24 points.
Offensively, the Buckeyes were okay as four guys were in double-digits scoring wise, but none of their efforts were enough to keep pace with the Hawkeyes.
Against Maryland, Ohio State must really buckle down. The Terrapins not only have one of the best guards in the country in Anthony Cowan Jr. but they have a talented forward in Jalen Smith who averages 15.4 points per game and collects 10.5 rebounds per game.
Ohio State’s offense, while it was good against Iowa, must click on all cylinders on Sunday too as they only scored 55 points when these teams last met on Jan. 7.
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If the Buckeyes want to win against Maryland they must contain Cowan and try to keep Smith off the boards. They will also need to use some of that same offensive firepower from Thursday against the Terrapins, and they will certainly need to play much-improved defense. This is a must-win game for Chris Holtmann’s team – so let’s get it done.